MISSING A PAIR OF SOCKS ] Is that, like, crazy?

Is this where it all began? JLC was photographed--sans socks--by Steve Tirona for a 2007 cover story in Metro hiM.

John Lloyd Cruz would inevitably find himself in this blog, but for now just about the pressing issue of his exposed ankles. The guy, certainly one of the few stylish chaps in the entertainment business, has been going around town for awhile sockless, whether for a formal occasion or in a less dressy one. At the last Star Magic ball, at the Swatch event that launched him as the watch brand's endorser (see photo below by Cecile Zamora). He came to the YES! 10th anniversary party (dress code: smart casual) and his movie premiere in a grey suit with abbreviated pants and patent slip-ons. And yes, sockless.

Personally, I find it cute and refreshing, as most of his decisions tend to be (I’m a JLC fan, if I have not made it clear to you yet.). Personally, too, I have yet to be adept at wearing socks. Mostly I don’t. I usually just wear a pair to the gym or when running. Everywhere else, nothing comes between me and my choice of footwear. Except when I am quite aware that the shoes will be a bit of a discomfort given a few hours of wearing them—in this case, I have several pieces the eminent stylist Michael Salientes calls ‘socklets,’ which I have come to define as cutting the sock in two and wearing only the part that the shoe itself covers.

Maybe I just have to get accustomed to how socks look on me. Or maybe I just need to buy some. Two of my friends, however, have formed, shall we say, more evolved opinions on this matter of traipsing about sockless.

J. Lee Cu-unjieng, the other JLC in this story, and certainly one of the most stylish guys in town, says, “First, I think it depends on the shoe. Driving shoes, boat shoes, espadrilles and of course, any kind of slide or sandal, should be worn without socks. Penny loafers also may be worn sockless.

“And then it depends on the look. If you've embraced the ankle- grazing pant leg look (or shorter, like Thom Browne’s), that automatically signals going without socks, no matter the shoe. And any sort of walking short should be worn without socks. And I find it acceptable to be sockless in your khakis, too.”

Carlo Tadiar, another stylish bloke, has a more exacting, if more perplexing, take.

“In my view it is rarely acceptable for a man to wear leather shoes without socks unless he is a fashion model appearing in a fashion editorial,” says Carlo, editor of the dearly departed Metro hiM. “Nothing could be more embarrassing (and I suppose I exaggerate for emphasis) than being handsome, tall and thin and taking off your sockless shoes to reveal a woman's nylon socks on your feet. This happens more frequently than you might imagine in shoe stores in New York, and I would think in other fashion capitals. We all know that men's shoes are uncomfortable without socks, and the only way to achieve the fashion is by cheating. Nothing could be more un-stylish than straining for effect. If you were something out of Carlos Bulosan, in an ill-fitting suit and fedora and brogues without socks, that might be chic. If you're from Greenhills with a Gucci tote and John Bartlett oxfords without socks, that is not.”

Maybe going for no-socks, as the two JLCs would have it, is easier. Now about those orange shoes, that’s another story.

THE TWITTER REVIEW ] James Ong on the glamour and Grace of The September Issue

We've been wanting to see this for months since it premiered in Sundance early this year. We've been asking Chona at Metrowalk for months and it's still the same answer: "La pa po ser. One Year gusto niyo?" I don't know who's sponsoring the Philippine premiere of The September Issue but we'd love to be invited. Our friend James Ong was at the Singapore premiere last Wednesday. We asked him to tell us about the documentary in five tweets. He gave us nine. In twitter fashion, read from the bottom, of course.

jamesperezong...fashion.
15 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong...magazines. It's the story of Anna and Grace (who both started work at Vogue on the same day) and how these two women have influenced..
16 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong "I know when to stop pushing her, she doesn't know when to stop pushing me," says Grace. The movie is not about the glamor of fashion...
18 minutes ago from Echofon

Nicolas Ghesquiere gives a preview of his Balenciaga Fall 2007 collection to Anna and her court: Grace Coddington and, slightly hidden by his bangs, Hamish Bowles.

jamesperezong...decadent Galliano story because it was too much ("They just threw away $30k with that"). Grace keeps producing, Anna keeps editing...
21 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong...issue yet of Vogue. Anna is adamant about including a "texture" and a "color block" story. Grace is upset that Anna killed a spread in...
23 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong...but while Wintour holds forth in the meeting, her magazine ally, stylist Grace Coddington, is busy finishing shoots for the "biggest...
25 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong...surpassing their supply. The CEO is asking Wintour because she is the single most important figure in the fashion industry...
27 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong...imploring the US Vogue editor to tell designers that they need to work and deliver faster because the demand for their goods is fast
28 minutes ago from Echofon

jamesperezong In "The September Issue," Anna Wintour smiles. Laughs. Rubs her lovely comforting hand on a department store CEO's arms. The CEO was...
29 minutes ago from echofon

THE WISH LIST ] If we're rich next year, we're buying designer

From men.style.com's report on the best shoes from the spring 2009 runways, our favorites (clockwise from top left): Clarks Wallabees festooned with rusty staples (not to be tried in real life unless you will have shoes lined) for Patrik Ervell's show; woven leather mocs from First by Jeffrey Campbell for Loden Dager's collection that had a Latin American vibe; Steven Cox and Daniel Silver's collaboration with Florsheim for the Duckie show resulted in these suede bucks in neon-bright cerulean blue and citron yellow; Simon Spurr's Grenson suede oxford and espadrilles in an off-season appearance.

THE SHIRT TALE ] Rhett Eala on why yellow is the new black

Eala and (right) his biggest hit.

The simplest ideas are often the biggest hits. Put the country’s map on a shirt and get ready for the cash registers to ring non-stop. Whowouldathought? Well, Rhett Eala did. His collared cotton pique shirts with an embroidered Philippine map on the chest for Collezione C2 is turning out to be this year’s sartorial staple. No small thanks to the Aquino grandkids who made it almost a uniform during the length of the wake of their much beloved grandmother in August. And thanks to the elder Aquino, the Senator Noynoy, who wore one when he announced his presidential bid last week. A week before that, it was Mar Roxas, declaring he was stepping down from the presidential race to make way for Noy, in a blue number. From its fansite at Facebook, it looks like it’s not only the Aquinos who are sporting the shirt: it is increasingly becoming the uniform for people doing something good for the country. And now that Noy is leading in the presidential race survey, it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Rhett’s hit up to election season next year. Here, TheSwankStyle talks to the guy who put the shirt with the map, well, on the map.

How do you start your day?
I usually wake up around 6am. I go to the gym for about an hour then I'm in the office around 8:30

A moment/time/activity in the day you look forward to?
I really enjoy going to the stores and checking on whats moving and talking to clients and getting their feedback.

Describe your work station?
My desk is piled with swatches, color charts, pantone books and colored markers. I also have my laptop in front of me most of the day.

How do you work? Is there a certain time of day where you feel you are more inspired? Do you need music?
I work best alone if I'm working on some ideas. No particular time in designing. I always have a sketch pad when I travel. I usually have music on, mostly Coldplay sometimes Kanye West. I walk a lot when I'm abroad, in Manila I don't walk much.

What inspires you?
Anything can inspire me, a piece of art, music, a gesture, an old picture or something I've read.

Your favorite source of inspiration.
Books about fashion designers on how they work and develop their ideas. Right now I'm reading about Martin Margiela. Before that it was Cristobal Balenciaga.

Your favorite smell.
I love the smell of coffee in the morning

Like father, like son. Ninoy wearing Collezione (a screencap from docu The Last Journey of Ninoy) and Noynoy at the Club Filipino Wednesday last week. Noy photo by Patrick Uy.

What is your favorite yellow object/memory?
I saw a Coldplay concert earlier this year and when they sang "Yellow" they threw out about 50 giant yellow balloons to the audience and they were tossed around the concert hall until some of them burst then out came yellow confetti.

When you thought of putting the Philippine map on a shirt, what were the other thoughts that accompanied it?
I was thinking how I would feel wearing a the map on my chest.

Would you say the Pilipinas shirt is your biggest hit?
Yes I think so.

Has the orders/demand increased? Are there special orders coming from the Aquino camp?
We have been growing ever since we launched the map series last year. We have a hard time keeping the map shirts in stock but we manage. We do get orders from them.

Where are you taking the Philippine map stamp of Collezione? What’s in store in the coming months?
We are expanding the line to accessories and working on a bespoke line. We just opened two Makati stores in Greeenbelt 5 and Glorietta 3. We are opening a concept store in Rockwell on Oct. 8.

What are you doing this weekend?
Probably just watch the US open championship on TV.

THE 505 ] The editor reunites with an old pal

Whether it was Alexander McQueen’s revolutionary bum trousers that inspired it or what then was a new obsession among gym-going men to expose their pelvic bones, I don’t remember anymore. But when the first few years of the 2000s came in, I started to wear the low-waist. Didn’t matter that I had no bum whatsoever to flatter, nor that bone to expose. Most of the fashionable friends began wearing them. They’re all you see on TV, on billboards, on the racks. Suddenly, the waistline has moved from, well, the waist down to somewhere near the hip. Suddenly, just when my normal-waist formerly dark 505s have aged into a covetable fadedness, when they’ve just achieved that rock star cool, they needed to be pushed back in the closet to make way for the new and exciting low-rise.

Being a short man with slim hips, the new waist should logically be an unattractive choice for me since it needed a wider hip—not to mention a considerably plumper bum—to hold on to. But I wore them anyway. I was young and very easily swayed by the next fashionista. Never mind that the lower waist made my torso look just about as long as my short legs. Its cut sort of jived with the slim silhouette I’ve always insisted on since becoming aware of which clothes look good for my built. It made my legs look leaner. And since I usually have to get a pair from the women’s section because of my smaller proportions, and because of the low rise’s considerably abbreviated crotch, the pants also made me feel like a girl. Apparently, the worst have yet to come: the low-rise skinny pants.

'I bought it during that momentous jeans explosion of 1998, when Tom Ford declared it was cool again to wear jeans anywhere and be boheme.'

Throughout its eight-year respite at the far end of the closet, I would always catch a glimpse of my pair of Levi’s 505s, and always thought how cool it would be to be able to wear them again. Early this year, I thought of finally ending its reclusion. It was, after all, turning a decade old. I bought it during that momentous jeans explosion of 1998, when Tom Ford declared it was cool again to wear jeans anywhere and be boheme.

I brought the pair to one of those tailoring shops in Recto (beside the Isetann underpass) and had it adjusted to my now 32 waist. Like friends who never saw each other for years, we took a little time getting the hang of each other. More importantly, what seemed a little awkward at first was getting reintroduced to its high waist. Disconcerting more like. Did I really use to wear it this high? For the first few times I would casually pull it down to my hips but it would stubbornly inch its way back up, as if asserting its own person. Why do I suddenly want it to be who it isn’t? We were natural buddies from the moment I first wore it. We had such good times together, too many wine and caeperinha and Blue Ice, seen too many nights out in Insomnia and Giraffe and ABGs.

So I gave in. So yeah you can say we’re back together. It helps, of course, that I just recently noticed that most of my grown-up guy friends have always worn their waistlines where it should be. That the return of the wide-legged trousers last season had made the normal waist essential again matters little. I seem to have arrived at an age where I barely care about trends anymore when it comes to my wardrobe. Now at 34 (age, not waistline), and at the risk of sounding like Oprah, here’s what I know for sure: the higher waist makes my short legs look longer. While that alone is enough for me, they also allow for a wider, longer crotch, hence the boys have more room to move around. And yes, the considerably longer crotch actually makes it look like I have a more considerable bulge. I no longer feel like a girl. In fact, I think I’ve become a man.

Appeared originally in Metro hiM 2008.

THE STYLE ADVISORY ] J.Lee Cu-unjieng on the return of the plaid flannel

From left: The 'Heads in grunge; slacker dude now hard of hearing; and a look from Michael Bastian Fall 2009.

I always thought there was something wrong about Pinoy men wearing plaid flannels. It's like sporting emo hair with your pimply, oily face in the midst of humid Manila. It's emo alright, as in seeing you is me dying a little.

So when I saw a couple of supposed-to-be-hip brands (JT's eponymous label and Burkman Bros)showcasing the prints in their racks from last night's Fashion's Night Out in NYC , an effort of Mademoiselle Wintour to encourage people to shop and help the economy, it was quite alarming (in my still-in-bed-alarmed kind of way). Especially after I hopped on to men.style.com. There it is, one of their top three looks for fall: The Wanderer, a euphemism, really, for The Slacker. Even Marc by Marc Jacobs has little plaid patterns peeking out of from its knits. So bothered was I that I immediately asked the eminent stylist J.Cu-unjieng this morning what his take is on the return of grungy plaid.

"I'm not a big fan of these grunge/lumberjack plaids, especially if they're flannel...ugh! However, if the color combinations are interesting and new, I could probably be swayed--not to wear them, but to put them on a very manly man.

'That look is like 90's grunge, so without their knowing it, it's sort of retro and not terribly original.'

"I do understand that they're big in the skateboard culture, but that look is like 90's grunge, so without their knowing it, it's sort of retro and not terribly original. I don't particularly care for it in this country: it looks very heavy and dark, so it's not a look I would suggest."

Thank heavens.

"The only plaid I will wear," J continues, "is a gingham, but again, it should be in an interesting color, not the usual red or blue that looks like an Italian restaurant's tablecloth. I recently purchased a yellow one, which is nice and light."

I will never do grunge. Never have, never will. I have a blue Italian restaurant tablecloth, though. And I wear it as often as I can. JG

GREY SKIES, HITCHCOCK BIRDS ] Cecile Van Straten on her new shirt line

Ino Caluza (inside dressing area) and Michael Salientes (right photo) both wear the white shirt with extended shoulders.

Why Heather Miss Grey?
I wanted to call it Heather Grey, but I googled and there’s a band apparently, so I added “Miss” so that if I google, I know they’re talking about the brand.

What inspired the initial designs?
The designs were inspired by the time I was trying to lose weight and camouflage my problem areas, and also when I’m too lazy to think of what to wear. I was thinking “comfy chic.”

Why the somber colors?
I love somber colors. By experience I knew that grey is a very hard to sell in Manila, but I love it. To me it’s like navy or black, a basic color, but very informal. I love heather grey, black, white.

Who helped you with the illustrations? And will there be menswear?
I gave Cristine Villamiel a direction and she came up wit the very Hitchcock prints.
Menswear yes. I have to develop more cause Michael (Salientes) gets mad kung walang choice!

Heather Miss Grey is available at Bleach Catastrophe, Greenbelt 5 and Trinoma. Left photo from here; right from Chuvaness.com.

RULES OF STYLE ] Damn smart advice from a barber

"Pag malinis ang porma mo, dapat medyo bastos ang buhok mo. Pag bastos ang porma mo, dapat malinis ang buhok mo." --Mang Artem

Mang Artem used to hold court in a small barbershop in the corner of Orosa Street and Pedro Gil. All the Malate designers used to go to him--Auggie, Pitoy, Joe. Accomodating and makuwento, Artem was a quintessential barbero. He died a few years back of heart failure.

THE FASHIONISTA IS DEAD ] Welcome the era of the housewife

Written originally for the Women's Month issue of Free Press, a spinoff from one of my blog entries as editrixiagomez, this essay came out in the current issue of Uno Magazine.

You have to give it to Anna Wintour for knowing how to negotiate the complexities of capturing the mood of the times in a venue like the Vogue cover. Look ma, no numbers! No insufferably mundane declaration of 348 Pages of Sparkling New Clothes! Even the announcement of the Spring Fashion Special, almost a whisper at the bottom right corner, seems a little embarrassed for itself. In one of the two big fashion issues of the year, rather than pop the champagne for the barrage of the season’s new fashions, the editor Anna made a cover girl out of Michelle Obama, “The First Lady The World’s Been Waiting For,” wearing a shift dress, quietly seated on a beige sofa, surrounded by an equally beige curtain and beige lamp. Sobriety is the new chic, the cover seems to say, and even the First Lady's smile suggests she's a little tentative about doing this glamour thing. On the inside pages, she looks more relaxed in Annie Leibovitz’s photos, wearing subdued wifey little separates as a pencil skirt and a cardigan. The opening spread’s photograph perfectly echoes the writer Andre Leon Talley’s observation: "Curled up in the corner of a huge taupe velvet sofa, wearing knee-high boots as she nestles into the cushions, she almost seems like any other mom recently relocated to a city because of her husband's new job."

The fashionista is dead. It's the era of the housewife.

Of course, we’re not forgetting O-mama was Princeton-schooled and graduated from Harvard Law and looks like she can outscore any of the Williams sisters at the tennis court any day. But her public image will always first and foremost be the wind beneath Barack’s wings, reading to Malia and Sasha before they sleep, and pleasuring her husband after a long day’s work (hopefully not simultaneously. At least not in the same room). She is the icon of the moment and she is joined by an illustrious cast: some of the most popular women in the world who are proud carriers of the housekeeper badge.

Not a day passes when you don’t get a glance of Angelina Jolie on television, exiting yet another airport terminal, clutching one or two from her United Colors of Benetton brood, confidently announcing that she may be the biggest star in the universe but no Oscar win could come close to changing diapers while on holiday in the South of France. Or while visiting another orphanage in Zimbabwe.

Which brings us to Salma Hayek who most recently volunteered her left boob to a thirsty, nutrition-challenged African infant. She should lend her right one to any of the eight newborns of Nadya Suleman, certainly the most celebrated mom on tabloid television, already a mother of six before she gave birth to octuplets in January. With the size of Salma’s breasts, she could easily cover at least two Sulemans at a time.

Closer to home, Gretchen Barretto and her Bvlgaris have retreated to a quieter life while her sister Claudine is on headline news. She may not be appearing in the cineplexes and doesn’t even have a teleserye in the can, but the former Folded and Hung image model is in the limelight lately, in tears, desperately begging for a new law that will protect her two kids from kidnappers after her Sabina was almost snatched by a “fan” in her pre-school. Previous to this, she only managed to make her presence felt to the outside world by endorsing not a Secosana bag but an artificial food flavoring. There she is brandishing a huge bandehado of Adobong Ilongga she claims she herself cooked to members of the press--with Raymart, Sabina and Santino immediately behind her. And there she is again in another mommy magazine cover wearing the colors of Knorr’s Real Sarap All-in-One Seasoning Mix. The fashionista has become what the ad’s creative team have conveniently coined a “realista”—whatever that means.

The mom is indeed back in fashion. Manila Bulletin just put out a new mothering mag called HIPP. And we all know that the biggest blockbuster movie this year will be a mommy film: Ate Vi’s return to the big screen playing, whatelse, a mom, this time to a child with AIDS in the most important Star Cinema project in years.

How did we get to this, one might be compelled to ask. That in a matter of one fashion season women the world over have killed their cravings for the moment’s It bag and Balenciaga sandal? How did they go from obsessing about Carrie Bradshaw obsessing about Jimmy Choos to watching Tina Fey in 30 Rock obsess about chew toys for her yet-to-be adopted child. Now we all want to be Tina: smart, sassy, “America’s New Sweetheart” according to the January Vanity Fair, and in real-life, an always-beaming mother of one.

Blame it on the recession, of course. As we speak, hundreds of thousands of moms are going back to the home after losing their jobs due to corporate downsizing. After years of working the balancing act of a successful career and a happy home life, the reality of an economic depression has led them no choice but to tread the road back to life inside the picket fence.

Even Celine Lopez, Manila’s most famous fashionista is writing about such homely things as growing up in a politico family and, very recently, the introvert’s party scene, facebook. Just last week she was in Cebu for the design expo buying not a new cocktail dress or jewelry but furniture. Yes, she’s not a housewife but if you’ve given up the alcohol and the partying, as she has, then you may as well be. I sat down for drinks with her famous girl friend lately, the stylist Jenni Epperson. She spoke to me about missing those notorious party hardy days at Embassy, how fabulous those days were when the “freaks” were spilling their designer duds with their eleventh Cosmopolitan (and who knows what else). Yet there is a calm in her demeanor, a sincere sentiment peeking, when she starts talking about her daughter and how she’s become even taller now than her fashionista mom. Jenni doesn’t go out anymore. Although I still see her photo in some society page once in a while, appearing almost makeup-less, wearing trench dresses (goodbye zebra prints!). Or a roomy black shirt that allows for her healthy little extra weight—-as in the night of the Mark Nicdao show at Greenbelt 5. Of course I heard a couple of bitchy quips whispered behind her back—-mostly about the shirt and the unapologetic extra pounds.

But that’s the price you pay for changing your priorities, for going from fab to flab. When you’ve given up the spotlight for the less glamorous things. Gwyneth Paltrow should know. Formerly the biggest fashion icon in Hollywood, queen of the red carpet and the Vogue cover, she has traded designer clothes for baby strollers and began a career that echoes that of Martha Stewart’s. While raising an Apple and a Moses, she is at home blogging, writing about making meatballs, appropriating a personal uniform and asking her friends what books they read. Soon enough, the haters started crawling towards her with their claws. What right has she, they ask, to dispense advice about motherhood?

But isn’t that a mom thing to do? Moms like to share stuff, advice, discoveries, the best deals. They’re the designated doctors of the house, the Mother Confessor, the principal advisor. Every mom does what Gwyneth does. Its just that Gwyneth is famous and blonde and beautiful and friends with Madonna.

Without needing to take to the streets and burn a bra, women are finding themselves the rulers of this era, the icons of this age of going back to the basics. Us men couldn’t possibly join this bandwagon. We can’t even take care of ourselves. So we do it in other ways. Willie Revillame, early this year, coughed up close to half a million pesos supposedly from his own pocket to sponsor the plane fare back to Manila of 32 women OFWs being abused by their employers in Dubai.

A move not even our own president could afford to do, although she is a woman herself, let’s be clear about that. Because she’s more of a goon now the way the media and her critics have portrayed her (not that she’s entirely undeserving). Now here’s an idea: maybe, like the homecoming OFWs, it might do her well to return to being a housewife. Mike Arroyo will probably be the better for it. God knows the rest of us will be the better for it.

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE ] In which we carelessly judge a magazine by its cover

VOGUE

Charlize again? Federer again? Hugh Jackman? This is THE September Issue?

More like back issue.
BAZAAR

Makes you wonder if they still have money to put out the next one when they can't even afford a real photo shoot anymore. Remember July?



ESQUIRE

Big, bold, brash. But who the hell is Sam Worthington?
DETAILS

Tom Brady does Advocate. Oh, this is Details?



VANITY FAIR

Double cover. Similar fabulous poses. Some wicked fairy won the argument

at the editorial meeting.

BRING IT BACK ] Our pitch for the return of the knapsack

Because it's the bag of a hunter, and according to the eminent collector/antiquarian Mon Villegas its origins is in the Philippines. In the '70s, two enterprising Westerners went up to Mountain Province and found this.

Because it reminds you of the best times of your life: high school.

Because if your girlfriend has a knapsack, it wouldn't be so bad to carry her bag around while you're HHWW.

Because you wear it like a man: chest out and ready for battle.

Because you wear it, it doesn't wear you.

Because everything else feels like a purse.

BLACK RIBBON AFFAIR ] 3 more fabulous things at last Friday's National Artists protest

Let's take a little break from all the seriousness. At the Luksang Bayan para sa National Artists Award, the required accessory was a black ribbon, but the favorite accessory was the point-and-shoot, the better to spread the spirit on Facebook (graphic designer Ige Ramos calls the event the "Best Facebook EB Ever"). But among the sea of black-clad mourners that afternoon, here are three who caught our eye. 1) Who wore the black shirt best? Bencab. 2) While her contemporaries are into Botox, Celeste Legaspi proudly shows the years. That shock of fabulous white hair. Nakaka-tuliro. 3) He may be an old man but the pair of red-rimmed glasses says Arturo Luz is always, always modern.

Photographs from Ige Ramos's Facebook.

TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE ] How to get shot by The Sartorialist

From here by way of LDV. Click image to enlarge.

THE MULTI-TASKER ] Marlon Rivera and the story of a collection

Why go into fashion design now?
I've been interested in fashion long before all my other interest came (theater, make up, interior design, education). In the early 80's my sister took a course in SLIMS so I was exposed to her plates and the magazine Manila Women's Wear. Since then I've been sketching and designing for friends. When I got to theater, the interest moved to costume design. When I got to advertising, the interest expressed itself in styling for shoots. Finally, I became a stylist for shoots, fashion shows, and editorials.While watching one of the shows in the last fashion week, I just decided to do it.

How does the process begin for you? Inspiration first before fabric? Fabric before silhouette?
It always starts with an inspiration, usually a piece of garment in my closet. Something I really like and want to wear over and over again. Ergo, the menswear influences in my collection. Then I go to Divisoria to buy fabrics that I really like, it's always the things that strike me. I bought as many and as much fabric for two months. Then I create the overall idea of the collection, sketch like mad then go back to Divisoria for more fabrics. Once the sketches are final, I go to Fanbi to complete the fabric requirements. Then the pattern development starts. What I did was go to the ukay-ukay and bought clothes with construction that interest me, I take them apart and draw the parts I needed. By tweaking the parts and combining them I finalize the pattern. They're mostly simple shapes since I'm not good at this yet. I then turn them over to my pattern maker so he can finalize them and grade them to size. After that it's sampling and tweaking. I wish I could do more sampling to perfect things but I only have one mananahi.

Tell us about this debut collection.
I call this collection 'the editor' collection. Actually more like a magpie collection. I took four things from my closet: a tuxedo, a pair of jeans, a t- shirt, and my sweat pants. Then I took two things I bought in my recent travels: a pair of zoave pants from Marrakech, a yukata from Japan. The last shape is a pencil skirt with pronounced hips--I got from the idea from the cactus in the Majorel Gardens. Actually I also got the blue color from the walls of the house in the garden. With these seven shapes I made my collection.

Are you planning to do more shows in the future?
I hope the response is positive so I can do this on a larger scale. I'm doing ready to wear so I'll be producing the pieces in limited numbers for an end of August selling (this is a holiday collection by the way). I have no plans of opening a store yet, kasi mahal masyado. I will sell on line and in my place in Morato.

What does fashion mean to you?
Fashion is one of the things that truly excite me. I am a consumer, a really voracious shopper but not of trends but of classic pieces. I love the way fashion makes and remakes itself, constantly trying to make itself relevant and desirable. Clothing telegraphs in an instant certain assumptions about the wearer, sort of like subliminal calling card. I think that's powerful stuff.

What is your favorite piece of clothing?
I'm torn between khaki pants (I own a bazillion of them) and a nice fitted tux (which i always wear separately and dressed down).

Marlon Rivera is the president of Publicis Manila, creative director of Folded and Hung, a writer, a stylist and a lot more. His collection opened the Philippine Fashion Week 2009 last night at the SMX in Pasay. Photos of the collection here.

THE ALTER EGO ] Neil Ryan Sese is also Boy Benta

In the 2005 film Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, he was the wayward brother who had to wash off the blood from the incriminating shirt. In 2009, Neil's shirts come stain-free but splashed with funky prints that have attracted much attention from his friends in the teleserye and theater circuit. Last we were at Taumbayan, this place in Kamuning where all the PETA people hang out, he had a whole bag stuffed with merchandise, and before we could actually check if he has our sizes, he had already sold everything. He doesn't actually make them (he buys them from Bangkok) but at P250 a pop, why should he?

For more information on how to get your hands on these, visit Neil's site. He's having a sale.

SUMMER DIY ] Swimwear from leftover things

It almost looks like paper in the photograph but it's really cool on the skin and very comfortable. I grew up surrounded by Singer sewing machines, and while I didn't learn how to make a dress, I learned how to make shorts. It's the simplest thing. I was designing my own shorts since high school, and would ask my mother to cut them for me, and she would ask one of her mananahis to sew them. One summer, without nothing exciting to do, I made my first pair. Cut it myself, and put the pieces together. It was cotton fabric and was of a green and black print. It was a simple gartered pambahay shorts without pockets.

In 1999, inspired by the return of the boxy swimwear, led by Gucci's buckled pieces, I made my first swim trunks, from leftover teflon fabric (it was the era of Helmut Lang and the techno material, and I had already made tapered pants out of them) in beige. It was the perfect fabric, I thought. It stretches and its waterproof. I had my mom cut it, but I knew it was pretty easy. Four pieces of squares, lay them on top of each other and cut a J-shape on one corner for the crotch. Connect everything together, take a one-inch-thick garter in your measurement and put it inside the waistband. Since I didn't have a silver buckle, I used a snap one usually finds in the straps of knapsacks.

I thought the idea was still in tune with that time's athletic influences (Prada, Michael Kors, etc). It was short enough for my short legs, and understated enough not to catch too much attention. Although, of course, it did. It was the chicest thing on the beach (years before chic became a regular in my vocabulary), especially when worn with a gleaming tan, next to a sweaty glass of Tanqueray tonic, under a striped canvas umbrella stand.

THE GUWAPO GUIDE ] J. Cu-unjieng on how to look dapper in a depression

Keeping it simple is the best way to stay dapper in tough times. And the thing is, most men already have the ingredients in their closet, they just need to make sure everything fits well. I can't say enough about fit.

(1) A clean, crisp white shirt with (2) well-worn, but not holey, blue jeans is always wonderful, and most men look good in that. Nothing too gimmicky, just straightforward good clothes will always work. I liked the Swank entry about the uniform, about purchasing polos that fit well. That's the idea. (3) Good shoes and a (4) belt in the same colour family. Stick to manly colors. Navy, grey, white, black, brown, tan, khaki, will always look riche. As far as an accessory, I still check out a (5) man's watch. If you can't afford the expensive one, then go with something really sporty, like a Timex. It will make everyone think you're just athletic, and the good watch is at home.

J'S GROOMING NOTE: I think if a man does not neglect his grooming, then he doesn't need a scent other than the clean smell of soap. When you think about it, wouldn't you want to sleep with a man fresh from a shower, with no trace of cologne? And besides, if you kiss a man on the neck and there are traces of cologne there, you wind up tasting it. So, my grooming note is never forget to bathe, even if you're going to be sweaty 10 minutes later. I shower before the gym or before a run, so I sweat clean.










J.Lee Cu-unjieng has been named several times as one of Manila's most stylish men. He used to be fashion editor at Metro hiM. He runs as fast--and as often--as he can.

A note on the collage: Christopher de Leon used to sport the look in the '80s when he was still THE leading man known for his talent, his gorgeousness and, as Imee Marcos once put it, his "tight butt." He would eventually sport daddy polos and pleated, roomy trousers (with that moustache) which probably led to his being a ham.

Collage by Neil Agonoy. ...Read more

THE CLASSIC ] Espadrilles

Click on images for easier reading.

The espadrilles in this story are from Juté ('Yu-tay'), a line of espadrilles for men and women from La Rioja, Spain. They are hand-made and are of organic materials such as jute—a natural fiber next to cotton—which means they are soft, comfortable and allow your feet to breathe. For information or orders, please visit juteespadrille.multiply.com or call 899-2021 or 0920-9614600 ...Read more